‘100 Days, 100 Lives’ looks at Boston Marathon bombing aftermath

When two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line and days later a gunfight erupted in and then shutdown a Boston suburb, GateHouse Media publications kept their readers informed, online and in print. This week marked 100 days after the bombs changed – and took – so many lives. Every Wicked Local newspaper (and its sister daily papers) marked the occasion through a project called “100 Days, 100 Lives,” in which 100 people affected by the bombings in some way was profiled.

Our various Wicked Local publications covered the news as it happened the day of the bombings and the days after as we learned about who was killed or hurt and what communities they were from.

The escaped suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was found and caught that night hiding out in a family’s boat. He was hospitalized and charged in the Boston Marathon bombings. He pleaded not guilty to 30 counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill, at his arraignment July 10.

As we found out about local people affected by the bombings, we wrote about them. It was often a challenge because people were still in the hospital recovering from horrific injuries. But as the dust settled and people started to heal – physically and emotionally – we wanted to try to get a better picture of just how our neighbors had been affected by the bombings.

We tasked every GateHouse publication in Massachusetts with finding at least one person from their community whose life had been touched by the bombings. For some, it was a person seriously injured at the finish line. Or an EMT who helped the wounded. Or a runner who was told to stop a half mile away from the finish line. Or a child who helped raise money to benefit victims.

The most obvious milestone on which we chose to run our coverage was 100 days from the bombings, Wednesday, July 24. Daily newspapers ran a package on the 100th day, weeklies ran it that same week.

Readers found a general story explaining the project as the front-page centerpiece in the print newspaper that week. Included in the package was a sidebar teasing to a special website that aggregated all of the coverage, as well as a special presentation inside. Another sidebar introduced the local person from that community who was profiled on an inside page.

Inside, readers found a special two-page spread featuring 100 headshots of the people profiled throughout Eastern Massachusetts, along with a one-sentence explainer of their connection to the bombings. They also found one or more profiles of people from their community.

All of this content was shared to a microsite, providing one place to find profiles of all these people affected by the bombings. The site also featured videos, photo galleries and an interactive map that lets you click on a town and see what person was profiled.

The site also features a section called “How you can help/Resources.” This is a list of fundraising efforts and useful websites, providing readers with an opportunity to donate or to find services they or someone they know may benefit from.

We hope through our print and online efforts, our readers gained a deeper appreciation of how so many lives were affected by the senseless act of two young men.

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